Tagged: James “Skip” Sullivan

Our seventeen year old client was involved in soliciting a person to buy alcohol for him and a friend in Johns Creek. At the same time of the purchase, Johns Creek Police Department was conducting a sting operation to catch people who buy alcohol for kids who are under 21. Once the sale of alcohol was complete and our client and friend received the alcohol, Johns Creek moved in and detained our client and friend. Our client was then charged with underage alcohol possession in Johns Creek. Mr. Sullivan was able to get his client into a pretrial diversion program, which our client completed successfully. This resulted in the charge being dismissed by the court. This also saved our young client from having a criminal history, let alone a conviction for underage alcohol possession.

Our Woodstock DUI client was observed by Woodstock Police throwing up besides her car in a parking lot. Our client then drove off not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign exiting the parking lot. The Woodstock police officer initiated a traffic stop and client pulled back into the same parking lot. A DUI investigation was conducted after the officer smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from our client, observed bloodshot, watery eyes, and observed our client vomiting. Our client performed field sobriety evaluations and scored the maximum clues on the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus evaluation, 5 out of 8 possible clues on the Walk and Turn evaluation, and 1 out 4 clues on the One Leg Stand evaluation. She was then arrested and charged with DUI and running a stop sign. Mr. Sullivan was able to successfully negotiate with the Woodstock solicitor (prosecutor) to drop the DUI charge in exchange for a plea to Reckless Driving.

Our out of state client was stopped for speeding in Braselton going 90 mph in a 70 mph zone. A license check determined that our client’s out of state license was suspended. Mr. Sullivan was able to convince the prosecutor to dismiss the Braselton Driving While License Suspended charge and the Speeding charge (which would have resulted in a super speeder assessment by Georgia DDS if convicted). A plea to Basic Rules and a city ordinance was negotiated, where the charges would not be reported to Georgia Department of Driver Services and would also not be reported on client’s criminal history.

In her Spalding County DUI case, our client lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a collision repair shop parking lot in Spalding County. A witness saw the accident and called police. Georgia State Patrol responded and conducted an investigation. Due to the accident, no field sobriety evaluations were performed, but the trooper noticed a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage from our client. Our client was transported to the hospital for treatment. Our client was charged for DUI in Spalding County and blood was draw for testing at the GBI. The blood test result was .40, five times the legal limit. Mr. Sullivan was able to persuade the prosecution that due to the delay of the case and admissibility issues of the state’s blood test to dismiss the DUI charge, resulting in a negotiated plea to Too Fast for Conditions and Reckless Driving.

Our client rear-ended a car while exiting the expressway in Dunwoody, GA. He decided not to stop at the scene, but eventually stopped in Chamblee, Ga. A Chamblee officer responded to the scene, but called in Dunwoody police to come to the scene as the Hit and Run charge occurred in Dunwoody. A DUI investigation was conducted and our client was arrested for DUI by Dunwoody police. He agreed to take the state-administered breath test and blew a .154 – almost twice the legal limit in Georgia. Mr. Sullivan moved the case from Dunwoody Municipal Court to DeKalb County State Court to challenge the DeKalb DUI arrest and the admissibility of the breath test on constitutional and police jurisdiction grounds. Mr. Sullivan was able to convince the DeKalb State Court prosecutor that the state breath test would not be admissible at trial, and without that, the rest of the prosecution’s DUI case was weak. The DeKalb DUI charges were dismissed, and Mr. Sullivan negotiated a plea to the Hit and Run charge (which our client admitted to doing) and minor traffic offenses.

Our out of state client was stopped for speeding in downtown Atlanta by a Georgia State Patrol Trooper. Client agreed to perform field sobriety evaluations. The trooper was a big officer, who stood uncomfortably close to our client during the evaluations on the side of a busy highway. He was arrested for DUI and when the Georgia Implied Consent Notice was read to our client to submit to the state breath test, our client asked if the results may prevent him from being arrested (no matter what the results were). The trooper said he was under arrest no matter what happens. Our client refused to take the breath test. Mr. Sullivan conducted an administrative license suspension hearing and was able to successfully cross-examine the trooper. The audio recording of the hearing was presented to the prosecutor, who subsequently dismissed the Atlanta DUI in exchange for a plea to Reckless Driving in Atlanta Municipal Court.

Mr. Sullivan was able to save our client’s license from being administratively suspended for a year for refusing the state’s breath test after being arrested for an Atlanta DUI by a Georgia State Patrol Nighthawks DUI task force trooper. Our client made an illegal u turn in view of the trooper and was stopped in a gas station parking lot. Our client’s passenger was having a medical emergency. Our client had noticeable slurred speech, but performed reasonably well on field sobriety evaluations. He was arrested for DUI and refused the state breath test at the jail. Mr. Sullivan was able to negotiate a dismissal of the DUI charge in exchange for a plea to Reckless Driving, avoiding an Atlanta DUI conviction, but also avoiding a one year suspension of our client’s driver’s license.

Our client made an illegal turn on red right in front of the Atlanta DUI Task Force Officer. a traffic stop was conducted, where our client was visibly impaired on the video. His speech was also heavily slurred, and he berated the officer throughout the entire time the video was running. Mr. Sullivan was able to persuade the Atlanta prosecutor to reduce the DUI charge down to Reckless Driving and saved our client his driving privileges as well as avoiding a DUI conviction.

Our client was stopped by a Georgia State Patrol Nighthawks DUI Trooper in Atlanta for failure to maintain lane. The failure to maintain lane was obvious on the patrol car video and it took a while for our client to stop. Our client also did not perform well on field sobriety evaluation and was arrested for her Atlanta DUI and Failure to Maintain Lane. She refused the state breath test. The case was moved out of Atlanta Municipal Court by her former attorney who was not associated with our firm. Her former attorney was disbarred from the practice of law by the Georgia Supreme Court while the case was pending. An arraignment date was missed due to the fault of her former attorney and she was arrested for failing to appear for court. She subsequently hired Chestney & Sullivan and we promptly got her case back on a court calendar. Mr. Chestney and Mr. Sullivan filed various motions, including a motion to dismiss due to the delay of the prosecution bringing this case to trial. The Fulton County State Court judge agreed with Mr. Sullivan and dismissed all charges against our client.

Our client traveled the wrong way down a one-way street in Atlanta and pulled into a gas station where he struck and damaged a gas pump. An Atlanta officer, who is not a member of the Atlanta DUI Task Force, conducted a poor DUI investigation, but there were still signs of intoxication. There was no video of this incident from the police. Although the driving was bad and an accident was involved, Mr. Sullivan was able to persuade the prosecutor to dismiss the Atlanta DUI charge in exchange for a plea to Reckless Driving and a minor traffic offense.

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